Immigrant Youth No Longer Coming to Dallas

Dallas will not host 2,000 undocumented immigrant children after all, county officials said Thursday, despite their original offer. (Published Thursday, July 31, 2014)

Dallas will not host 2,000 undocumented immigrant children after all, county officials said Thursday, despite their original offer.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Thursday that federal officials have notified him that they no longer need space in Dallas, citing a steep decline in the number of children crossing into the United States.

Jenkins said the surge of children has slowed dramatically. Back in June, nearly 300 children were crossing the border every day. Now, that number is down to less than 150 and is still dropping.

More than 57,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border into the United States from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras since October. But new federal facilities are being opened, and the number of daily entrants appears to have fallen in recent weeks.

Jenkins announced last month that Dallas County would help federal facilities overwhelmed by undocumented children. In recent weeks, he met with President Barack Obama and local community leaders on immigration and how to deal with the children.

Even though the children will no longer be coming to Dallas County, there is still a need for foster families, as well as donations to help the children who have crossed the border.